The invention relates to a method of recording picture information on a record carrier, in which pictures on an image carrier are scanned and converted into a picture information signal, the picture information signal being converted into an coded picture which is recorded on a record carrier.
The invention further relates to a record carrier on which coded pictures representing scanned pictures have been recorded.
The invention further relates to a picture retrieval and reproduction device for use in combination with the record carriers according to the invention picture.
The book "Compact Disc Interactive, a designer overview", published by Kluwer (ISBN 9090121219) describes the so-called CD-I system, which enables coded pictures to be recorded on a Compact Disc. The picture information thus recorded can be read by means of a CD-I player and can be displayed on a picture display unit. Further GB-A-2216746 discloses the recording of the same picture with two different resolutions on a record carrier. The code picture representing the picture with a lower resolution is only used for displaying the image on display, whilst the coded picture representing the picture with the higher resolution is only used for printing a hard copy of the picture by means of a printer. The coded picture representing the high resolution picture is a data compressed version of the picture information obtained by scanning a document. The coded picture representing the low resolution picture is obtained by thinning out the image information obtained by scanning the document. The publication "Rundfunktechnische Mitteilungen, vol. 32 no. 4, July 88, page 166 to 172" discloses an optical disc on which digitized pictures are recorded together with a so-called "polyphoto" which exists of a mosaic picture composed of reduced sized versions of the pictures recorded on the optical disc. The "polyphoto" as a whole can be processed and reproduced in the same manner as the "normal" pictures so as to provide an overview of the pictures available on the optical discs.
A problem occurring when the recorded coded pictures are read is that reading out a coded picture may require a comparatively long time, which is annoying to the user. This problem occurs in particular with coded pictures representing a scanned picture of high resolution because the amount of information stored for each picture is then large. Another problem is that a number of display functions such as, for example, "picture magnification" or "Picture in Picture" require complex picture processing operations on the read-out coded picture.